The Alcroft Family
While their presence in his life has decreased over the years, especially since manifesting his ability and meeting Adele, Ryan's immediate family still remain in close contact with him. As well as his parents Rhiannon and Leo, Ryan also has an elder brother. =Darron Alcroft= Six years Ryan's senior, Darron is the first-born of Rhiannon and Leo. Much like his brother, Darron is well above the average height for an adult male, measuring nearly six-and-a-half feet tall (6'5"/195cm). Being the elder (and taller) brother, Darron's early childhood was ruled by the belief that he was superior. As with many pairs of siblings, the young Darron and Ryan were very much engrossed in an intense rivalry, one which frequently became violent as the inevitable arguements escalated. Being smaller and weaker than Darron at the time, Ryan was the one who always found himself defeated by the end of these arguements, often having little else to show for it than a new bruise on his skin. It was Darron's actions in his early life which led to Ryan becoming somewhat introverted as he progressed through junior school. Despite Ryan arguably faring the worst out of the two brothers, home life wasn't without its effects on Darron. At the age of fourteen, following an altercation in high school, Darron recieved a two-week suspension for starting a fight which landed his opponent in hospital with two cracked ribs and a mild concussion. Seeing his punishment as a startling wake-up call - and seeing how lucky he was not to be expelled - Darron decided to turn himself around and endeavour to keep a tighter grip on his fiery temper. Upon his return to high school, Darron concentrated far more on his studies on the run-up to his GCSE exams. Over the course of the three years following his graduation from high school, Darron progressed into college and, later, into university, where he studied law. It was then - at the age of nineteen - that Darron left home in order to move into his campus accomodation. This was the impetus which Ryan needed in order to change. No longer under his brother's shadow, Ryan began to be more outgoing, making friends and socialising where he would have otherwise kept to himself. Because of the age gap (and the emotional rift between them), the two brothers didn't see each other again until Ryan was nineteen. During a somewhat impromptu vacation, Ryan and his girlfriend (at the time), Adele Couteau made a week-long stop in London where, among other things, they visited the twenty-five-year-old university graduate - now working at a law firm - at his apartment. While the visit wasn't without its difficulties; the two brothers getting into a brief fight in the kitchen, for instance, Ryan and Darron did manage to make the first few steps on the road to reconciliation, culminating in the two of them - plus Adele - going out for dinner (and copious amounts of Jack Daniels whiskey) at a local restaurant. =Rhiannon Alcroft (née O'Hara)= Born in Dublin, Rhiannon is - along with her parents - the source of the Irish half of Ryan's - and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Darron's - unique accent. Moving to London in the late Seventies, Rhiannon O'Hara (as she was known at the time) elected to attend university in England rather than remain home. Her parents, knowing full well about the volatile situation in which Ireland was mired at the time, were very much willing to help their daughter's intentions become a reality. While studying at university, she met and eventually started dating Leo and, after becoming pregnant with Darron in 1982, the couple decided to do the "right thing" and get married. Despite her studies taking up a lot of her time, Rhiannon moved out of her university accomodation in order to better take care of her newborn son. With Leo living relatively close to the campus at the time, the necessary sacrifice of convenience was an easy one to make. The couple remained in London until the summer of 2008 when, after Ryan's year-long exchange trip to Texas, they surprised their younger son with the news of their plans to move to New York where, despite Ryan eventually moving back to Texas to live on South Padre Island with Adele, they have remained ever since. =Leo Alcroft= Leo's upbringing was a lot like many city kids growing up in London in the Seventies; nearly always surrounded by people and, while not what people would consider "wealthy", his parents did make enough money to get by and get him the education he needed. As a child, Leo was an argumentative troublemaker, often getting into fights in school; a trait he - through genetics or some parental mistake - would eventually pass onto his first-born son, Darron. His education quickly showed that Leo excelled at the practical side of things rather than the academic side and, upon finishing high school at the age of sixteen - during which he had been a star player in the football (soccer) team - he threw himself into work as a mechanic rather than attend college. His shift in career didn't really occur until he started to date a young, Irish woman named Rhiannon O'Hara, who - at the time - was a university student. Spending time with her allowed Leo to notice that the rapidly-changing times allowed him to move up in the world and generally make a better life for himself. His epiphany couldn't have had a better timing as, shortly before his birthday in 1982, Rhiannon surprised him with the news that she was pregnant with their first child. Deciding to step up and do the right thing, Leo and Rhiannon got married - despite the short notice of the occasion - just after Christmas the same year and, in July the following year, Darron screamed his way into the world. Another six years down the line, Ryan followed and, over the course of the next two decades, the two sons left home, leaving the still-happy couple living in the big city, albeit over three thousand miles west of where they started. Category:Families Category:Characters Category:NPCs